This is a guide for new players that are having a difficult time choosing a server.
The Right Server
Choosing the right server can be very important to some people. A lot of people just starting out in the world of Eorzea are unfamiliar with the tools and resources that are available to them.
Let's start out with something that everyone should tak into consideration.
Lag/Latency
A great resource to use for establishing ping is ARRSTATUS. This site shows the delay between ARRSTATUS and FFXIV servers.
If you would like to get more technical you can ping the servers yourself using the CMD by typing "ping XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX" The X's you should replace with the server you want to ping.
NA Servers are located in Montreal: IP address : 184.107.107.176
Europe: IP address : 209.130.141.243
Japan: IP address : 202.67.53.202
Legacy/Non-Legacy
If you're unfamiliar with why it's called "FFXIV 2.0" it's due to the fact that FFXIV was actually released in 2010, but was deemed a failure. The Square-Enix team decided to remake the game. Instead of wiping all the hard work that the people in the original FFXIV did they made two kinds of servers. Legacy servers are servers that have players from 1.0 and have a more established playerbase for the most part. While non-legacy servers are servers that were created when 2.0 (A Realm Reborn) was released. Legacy characters (FFXIV 1.0) are not permitted on non-legacy servers as of today (Sept. 23rd).
Everyone has different preferences, so make your decision and continue on.
Community/Free Companies
I would strongly recommend finding a Free Company upon joining your new server. Free Companies in FFXIV are the equivalent of guilds in other MMO's. You may also hear about "Linkshells". Think of a Linkshell like an exclusive chat room, as they have no other purpose really. Linkshell's can be useful for spreading the word on world events and such. You can look for Free Company sites on the official FFXIV forums.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/forums/666-Community Please note the group of the forum. Make sure if you're looking for North America, you are looking in the NA section. Same goes for JP. MMO's in general are a lot more fun if you have someone to play with. Free Companies can answer a lot of questions you have as a new player.
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Thank you for posting this! I have been having horrid lag in fates and instances lately, with a 1k-2k increase over my norm since they released 2.1. Trying to figure out why just got easier thanks to you!
Actually I was here in 2.0 Lag was actually due to servers being in Japan regardless that they were NA servers. HW they brought them over to have real NA servers fixing a majority of the problems of crashing and lagging. Also they never said it was Montreal and were trying to be discreet and not tell where they actually were.
